Skeptics And True Believers
by Oh My gahhhd
Summary: Things get a little out of control when Sandy has her baby.
1. Not the way it was supposed to be

"SHE'S IN LABOR!" Eric Camden yelled up to the second floor to whoever happened to be up there as he hung up the phone. "I'M GOING OVER TO THE HOSPITAL NOW SO IF YOU WANT TO COME THEN LETS GO!" There was no answer from upstairs so Eric put on his jacket and opened the door, but before he took another step Ruthie, Sam and David came running down.

"Wait, we want to come." Ruthie said as she quickly helped her younger brothers put on their coats.

"Where is everyone else?" Eric asked as he looked around the kitchen and pocked his head into the living room. 

Mom already got the call and left about a half an hout ago, she wouldn't let me come, she said I had to stay here and watch them" Ruthie explained to her father.

"Then I think it would be best if you stayed home."

"No, that's ok" Ruthie smiled and then followed her brothers out to the car while her father shut and locked the door.

"Has anyone called Martin?" Eric asked as he got into the car and quickly put on his seatbelt.

"Uhm, I'm not sure, but I do no that I sure don't want to be the one to tell him" Ruthie said and then put on the radio as they drove down the street.

They had all been waiting impatiently for this day to finally come. The day when Sandy would finally have her baby, and now it was here. The only problem was, everyone seemed to be in the hospital waiting room when Eric and the kids arrived, everyone except Martin. Martin wasn't Sandy's husband, he wasn't even her boyfriend, but he was the father of the almost born baby.

As they took off their coats and hung them up in a coatroom Annie, Eric's wife, came over too Eric with not a very gleeful look on her face.

"I wanted them to stay home". Annie said, gesturing towards Ruthie, Sam and David.

"Well, seeing as how we are basically all the family that Sandy's got to support her, don't you think it would bring up her spirits if we were ALL here?"

"Well, yes, I suppose" Annie said and then went over and sat in the middle of Sam and David.

They weren't allowing anyone at all in the room with Sandy, and no one knew why.

"Excuse me, Sir" Eric said getting up from his chair and walking over to the doctor that kept coming in and out of Sandy's room.

"Sorry Sir but I'm very busy with a patient at the moment and don't really have time to talk" the doctor said quickly and then went into Sandy's room.

"Is there something I could help you with Sir?" A nurse with bright blonde hair asked Eric as he was making his way back to his seat slow and confused.

"Uhm, actually, yes." Eric looked up and walked over to the young nurse. "I was wondering if you could tell me what's going on in Ms. Jameson's room and why they aren't allowing her any visitors"

"Oh, I'm sorry but I can only give out a patient's information to family members" The nurse apologized.

"Well, actually me and my family over there, are the closest thing she has to family." Eric said pointed to the waiting room, which was filled with the whole Camden family, as well as Rose.

"Well, since you're a Reverend, and you do seem to be the only family/visitors Ms. Jameson has, then I guess I could tell you what's going on" The nurse said, then she leaned in closer to Eric so none of her employees would here her. "Ms. Jameson is in intensive care right now because she is in very critical condition. She has already had the baby, and it is a VERY healthy little boy, but something went wrong when she was in labor, and the chances of Ms. Jameson leaving the hospital anytime soon are very slim. We aren't exactly sure what is wrong with her, that's what we are working on figuring out now, but at the moment she is bleeding excessively and we can't seem to stop it."

With shock in his face and in his voice Eric asked the question that he seemed to already know the answer to. "Is she, Uhm, is she going to… you know…?"

"I'm sorry sir but I can't tell you that right now, even if I wanted to, I don't even know the answer to that myself." The nurse said and then went into Sandy's room.

Eric slowly walked back to his seat.

"What's the matter, what did she say?" Annie asked as soon as Eric sat down. She could tell by the look on his face that the nurse had not given him cheerful information. Painfully and slowly Eric told his family what the nurse had told him.

No one really had anything to say, they were all shocked and quiet and got nervous every time the door to Sandy's room opened. They were relieved that at least the baby was going to be ok, but Sandy was the one they had known and took care of for quite a while, she had become part of their family and they all loved her.

Hours passed and no one gave them any new information about Sandy. They were starting to get worried and didn't know whether to go home and wait for a call or just stay there to see what happened. The twins had fallen asleep and Ruthie was nodding off every once in a while. It was already almost midnight and they didn't know how much longer they should stay there.

Finally a doctor came out of Sandy's room, slowly closing the door behind him, but there was something about the expression on his face that Eric didn't feel comfortable with.

"Reverend Camden?" The doctor said softly with a crack in his voice as he looked around the room for whom ever claimed the name.

"Yes, that's me." Eric stood up and walked over to the doctor. "How is she? Do you know what's wrong with her yet?" He looked into the doctor's eyes as he asked these questions.

The doctor only looked down to the ground and said nothing.

"You don't mean…" Eric started but didn't get to finish.

The Doctor nodded his head. "I'm so sorry"

Eric didn't say anything, he just stood their staring at the doctor wide eyed and shocked. The doctor just stood there as well. The rest of the family in the waiting room had over heard the conversation. They, like their father, were in shock and no one really said or did anything except for Lucy who immediately started crying into Kevin's shirt as he held her and Savanna. Lucy had become closer to Sandy than any of the other Camdens.

It was quiet in the waiting room, except for the faint sound of crying coming from Lucy, for what seemed like forever but was actually only seconds before the door to the waiting room swung opened with a loud bang.

Eric who was still standing next to the Doctor, as well as everyone else in the room quickly turned towards the door to see no one other then Martin running into the room completely out of breath. He stopped short at the sight of all the alarmed faces staring back at him. He had the biggest smile on his face when he walked into the room but it suddenly turned into the most depressing frown any of them had ever seen. The way his expression changed so drastically broke the hearts of his friends and family in the waiting room staring back. Annie, as well as Rose and Simon had developed tears in their eyes, they had been trying to stay strong but they could not hold it anymore. Rose hugged Simon and started crying. Simon held his future wife, trying to tell her everything would be Ok but he couldn't help himself from crying as well.

"W-w-w-wah-what Ha-happened?" Martin managed to say as he looked around the room at everyone questionably.

"Martin…" Eric began. "Sandy had the baby"

A slight smile formed on Martin's confused face. "Well, what is it? A boy? A girl?"

"A boy" Eric answered.

"Is he ok? I mean is there anything wrong with him?"

"No the baby is perfectly healthy"

"Then why does everyone look so sad?" Martin's smile left his face and he became a confused frown once more.

"Martin…" Eric began, but Annie stood up and stopped him.

She walked over to Martin. "Hunny…" She put her hands out onto Martin's shoulders and with tears burning in her eyes and running down her cheeks she told him what everyone was dreading to believe was true. "Sandy…" She paused. "Martin, there were some complications" she paused then began again. "Something happened during the birth Martin". There was shock and horror on Martin's face.

"No" He shook his head "NO!" He yelled still shaking his head, pushing Annie's arms away and backing up toward the door. "You…I…She…NO!" There were now tears gleaming in his eyes.

"Martin, hunny I'm so sorry" Annie said reaching out to hug him. Martin pushed her arms away once more and ran out of the waiting room through the door he came in from shaking his head still denying what they had told him.

Ruthie quickly jumped out of her seat and began running toward the door and out of the room calling Martin's name. Annie turned around, put her hands over her face and began to painfully cry as her husband came over and hugged her.

Ruthie ran threw the halls of the hospital and out into the parking lot. She looked around until she finally saw Martin holding onto the side of his car, hunched over crying as if he couldn't breath.

"MARTIN" Ruthie yelled as she ran over to him.

He turned too look at her and she could see the tears pouring down his face. As she got to him he quickly opened his arms and hugged her as tight as he could. They hugged for what was like an eternity, both holding each other as tight as they could. Ruthie had never seen Martin like this. Nor had she cried at all yet at the lose of Sandy, but the moment she saw Martin's sad and scared face look back at her as she ran towards him her heart shattered and she broke down into tears in his arms.

"Ruthie" Martin managed to slur between his crying, still holding onto her as tight as he could.

"Martin…" Ruthie began.

"No…Ruthie" Martin stopped her and loosened his arms around her. "There's…something…I… I mean…I need to talk to you" He said, tears still streaming down his cheeks. He finally let go of her and stepped back a little so he could see her confused face. He wiped his own tears. Then he wiped hers and held her face in his hands. He tried to stop the tears but he couldn't, neither of them could. Their faces were wet and sweating.

"Wa-" Ruthie began but was stopped by Martin's finger to her mouth.

He pushed back her hair out of her face. "I love you Ruthie Camden." He whispered and then before she could respond he put his hand under her chin and pulled her face toward his and kissed her. This was what Ruthie had been wanting the whole time, but suddenly she pulled away.

"Martin…" Ruthie began. A smile appeared on Martin's face as he looked into Ruthie's eyes. "I…" she began to shake her head and back away. "I'm sorry". Then she turned around and ran out of the parking lot with tears running down her cheeks.


	2. What's happening

Ruthie kept running without stopping once or even looking to see if anyone had followed her.

She stopped at a bus stop that was about 45 minutes away from her house. She sat on the bench waiting and thinking about what she was doing and what was going on.

She had got exactly what she wanted. She had loved Martin for as long and she could remember and all she ever wanted was for him to love her back and to want to be with her as much as she wanted to be with him. But now she was confused. He had made it clear many times to her in the past that he liked her as a friend, as a best friend, even as a sister, but didn't feel the way she felt about him. She wasn't sure he was telling her the truth and she couldn't handle someone playing around with her feelings like that because she was serious about it, she loved him. She didn't want to believe him and then have him break her heart. When he told her that he loved her, she started thinking about all of the possible ways she could get hurt. Then when he kissed her she just didn't no what do to, so she ran. He just found out that the mother of his child had died giving birth to the baby only moments ago. He didn't really love Ruthie, he was vulnerable and was turning to the nearest person to confide in, which in this case happened to be Ruthie. No one really loved Ruthie in that way, her parents and family loved her, but there was no one who actually loved her in the sense of growing old and spending the rest of their lives together, so Martin couldn't possibly be serious.

As Ruthie thought about all of that stuff she had gotten onto a buss. She fell asleep and then woke up just in time to get off at the right stop. She walked for a few more minutes and then arrived at Simon's apartment. She knew that he kept a spear key taped to the back of the mailbox because he had once told her if she ever needed a place to stay, she was welcomed to go there and stay as long as she wanted.

She went inside and shut the door behind her. She also knew that Simon liked to be sure he was safe at all times, he kept a gun in the apartment but no one else knew about it. The only reason Ruthie knew where it was, was because about 4 months ago someone had broken into Lucy and Kevin's house and robbed a lot of Lucy's expensive jewelry. Simon knew people for robbed everyday but he never thought that it would happen to someone so close to him. So when it did he realized that no one was really save. He bought a gun and let it slip to Ruthie but made her promise not to tell anyone and she never had. She went into his bedroom and found the gun under the mattress.

She brought it out to the main room and sat on the sofa for what seemed like an eternity just staring at the gun in her hands. It was cold and heavy. She closed her eyes and swallowed hard, then she held the gun to her head.


	3. Martin

What just happened? Martin sat in his car in the parking lot with his hands on his head leaning on the steering wheel. He was confused. He loved Ruthie, he really did. But he had been afraid to tell her how he really felt, until tonight. But he thought she loved him too? She made it pretty obvious to everyone around that she was in love with Martin, yet she ran away when he finally came forward. Wasn't that what Ruthie wanted? For Martin to finally admit he felt the same way? Maybe she had changed her mind, maybe she had gotten over Martin and didn't want to get into this again because she was afraid it would turn out the same as last time. But he couldn't just let it go, he couldn't just forget about his feelings for Ruthie. He loved her.


	4. This Could Be it

Simon and Rose pulled up at his apartment. They got out of the car and started walking toward the steps of the apartment. Suddenly they heard a bang. They both abruptly stopped, Simon stared up at the apartment then quickly at Rose then started running up the steps. Rose ran after him. He crashed open the door and saw his younger sister laying on the floor, gun in her hand, blood everywhere.

"CALL 911! HURRY CALL 911!" Simon screamed to Rose as he ran over to his sister. "SHE'S STILL BREATHING! HURRY UP!"


	5. All your fault!

Annie, Sam and David quickly left the house and got into the car. Annie had just gotten the call from Simon about what had happened to Ruthie. She was on the verge of tears but tried her hardest to fight them off for the sake of her children in the back seat. Eric was still at the hospital, he hadn't come home with them because he had to fill out some papers in order to be able to take Sandy's child home with them. They got to the hospital and rushed into the lobby. Annie was about to go to the front desk and ask for directions when she saw her husband sitting in the waiting room. He immediately stood up when he saw them.

"What are you guys doing back here?"

Annie was now crying hysterically. "RUTHIE, WHERES RUTHIE? WHERES MY BABYYY!".

"Hunny what are you talking about? Why would Ruthie be here?" Eric was now very confused.

"MOM, DAD!" Simon came running into the hospital. "What room is she in? Is she okay?"

"What' going on ?" Eric looked at his wife who was now across the room at the front desk talking to a nurse and then to his son who was standing next to him frightened and confused.

"Dad, I tried to call your cell phone about a hundred times but when u didn't answer I figured you were with mom." Simon began. "Ruthie… she… well a few months ago I bought a gun for protection, and she… she found it and…" Simon looked down.

"oh my god." Eric sat down in a chair and put is hands over his face. "Ruthie…" He just sat there for a moment shaking then looked up at Simon. "Is she…?"

"No dad, me and Rose were coming out of the car and on our way up to the apartment and we heard the bang… we went up and there she was, Rose called 911, she was still breathing when they took her away."

"SHES IN ROOM 233" Annie said as she passed the waiting room running up the stairs to the second floor where that room was located.

Eric stood up. "Simon, I need you to stay here with Sam and David, try to get a hold of Lucy and Kevin" Then he left the room running after his wife.

Simon called Lucy and Kevin who got to the hospital within moments. Then he called Martin. Martin didn't answer so he left a message on his phone.

"I want to go up and see her." Lucy said right when they got there as Kevin sat down with nervously with Savannah in his arms.

Before anyone said anything they turned around to the sound of Annie crying as her and Eric came walking slowly down the hallway.

Eric sat down holding his wife in his arms. "They wont let us in, she is in very bad condition and the nurse said it was best if we didn't see her like that… also with all the doctors and nurses in the room there is no room for us."

Simon stat there staring at the ground shaking his head. "its all my fault".

"Simon, don't blame yourself you didn't do anything" Eric told him.

"but, i… its my fault, it was my gun, I should have never bought that gun." There were now tears pouring down his face. Lucy came and sat down next to him.

"Simon, you only wanted to protect yourself, its not your fault you didn't think she would do something like this, none of us did" She hugged him as they both began to cry.

Simon looked at his father, "Dad, I'm so sorry".

Holding his wife in his arms Eric began to cry.

"Eric, what if she's not okay, what if she" Annie began.

"Stop, She's going to be fine,"

Annie stood up and started walking back and forth. "I need to see her... I cant… she…" she was crying uncontrollably and slurring up all her words.

Suddenly the room to the waiting room opened slowly.

"YOU! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! WHAT DID YOU SAY TO HER? WHAT HAPPENED? YOU KILLED MY BABY!" Annie began yelling as she stomped over to Martin, she was a mess, her face was drenched with tears.

"ANNIE STOP" Eric ran up behind her and held her arms down.

"RUTHIEEEEEEEE" Annie broke down crying and slowly fell to the floor. Eric picked her back up. There were now tears in Martin's eyes. When Annie stood up she hugged Martin as tight as she could as the two of them cried.


End file.
